


Epilogue

by sonictrowel



Series: Long Night in the Blue House [84]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Happy Ending, Humor, Light Angst, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2018-12-18 04:59:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11867247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonictrowel/pseuds/sonictrowel
Summary: River woke to the sound of birds and the scent of morning dew and pine....No, on second thought, that wasn’t only birds she heard off in the distance.UPDATED 16 APRIL with illustrations!





	1. Chapter 1

River woke to the sound of birds and the scent of morning dew and pine.  

...No, on second thought, that wasn’t _only_ birds she heard off in the distance.  

Her heart fluttered and her hand reached instinctively over to the empty half of the double sleeping bag, already growing cold.  Her nose was feeling somewhat frigid in the early-morning chill as well, but if the past week’s weather held, the sun would soon warm them up considerably.  She wiggled out of the sleeping bag and grabbed a flannel blanket from a corner of the tent, dragging it around her shoulders before pulling on her boots.

___

Their second destination as a reunited family had been the same as their first: 107 Baker Street.  It had sat empty for the better part of a decade, but everything remained in fair shape.  It felt like the right place to park the TARDIS while they took the time to rest and regroup, to begin to figure out what their new life might look like.

But with the Doctor’s regeneration imminent, River thought it might be good for just the two of them to get away for a while.  She wanted to make the adjustment period as easy as possible, especially after the way he’d told her the last time had gone.  The experience could be traumatic, or at the very least, leave one feeling vulnerable in a strange new skin.  She was determined that this time should be a happy, hopeful, fresh start for the Doctor, just as this was a fresh start for their family, together.

Athena was comfortable enough settling into the house and looking after Milly while they took their little holiday (which, after all, need only be a moment, since they were travelling in the TARDIS.)  The forests of central Sweden in 2,025 B.C.E. seemed a good place to get away from just about everything, and the Doctor had insisted on proper camping instead of sleeping in the TARDIS; otherwise, he said, might as well stay home.  At least he didn’t insist on period-appropriate gear as well.

He was on to something, River had to admit.  There was definitely a certain romance to being tucked away under the tall trees, just the two of them; listening to the wind swaying the branches, the splash of a fish breaking the serene surface of the lake.  Holding each other close in perfect, quiet contentment while the soft purple twilight filtered down to the fragrant carpet of needles covering the forest floor.  

But then, really, anything was romantic to her at the moment, because they were together again.  They were together _for good._

 —

“I feel like I remember something about it,” he mumbled, leaning up to brush his lips over her jaw.  They were sat on a stone near the lakeside, River in the Doctor’s lap, as they watched the night fall ever so slowly over the water.  A shiver went down her spine and the Doctor must have felt it, because he pulled her closer, pressing a warm kiss to her neck.  

“About what?” she asked, a bit breathlessly, tipping her head back onto his shoulder.

“Who I’m going to become,” he said uneasily.  “I feel like it’s… really different.”

“And how are you remembering that?” she teased gently.  “In the wrong direction again?”

He exhaled in amusement, nuzzling his face into her neck.  “Maybe.”

“I know exactly who you’re going to be.”

“Oh?”

“You,” she said simply, tangling her fingers together with his.  “As always.”

“Well, since you’re here with me this time... you might just be right.”

“Darling, I’m always right.”

“True.”  She heard the fond smile in his voice as the Doctor squeezed her hand.  “Have I mentioned how much I missed you?” he whispered thickly.

“Just a few hundred times,” River sighed, tears stinging her eyes as she curled into him until their lips met.

He eagerly deepened the kiss, soft but insistent, his hands moving into her hair.  Her breath came faster as she melted into him, desperate for more.  For all of him, always.

They stumbled to their feet and into the tent, laughing between kisses as they wrestled each other free of their clothing.  River shuddered as her skin met the chill night air, but the Doctor’s hands were warm when he pulled her close and they slid into the sleeping bag, shivering and giggling.  He looked down at her, breathless and smiling in the lantern light, as the heat blossomed between them, pressed skin-to-skin and wrapped up tight together.  

She felt her heart would burst at the love and unrestrained joy on his face.  To see him now, without the shadow of their tragic future hanging over him, with nothing but hope and a fearless devotion in his eyes…  Before she could get too choked up, he took her face in his hands and kissed her, soft and slow and deep.  She shuddered again, but not from the cold; urgent little moans welling up in her throat as his hips pressed into hers, love pulsing fiercely in her veins.  

—

The next morning, River’s eyes fluttered open to an odd pattern of gold light, flickering on the far wall of the tent.  As her vision cleared she saw the Doctor, huddled in the corner, looking at his once-again glowing hands.  His nervous eyes darted to hers as she sat up and crawled closer to him.

“Looks like it’s, ah, playing up again,” he muttered.  “Probably should have that looked at.”

“Darling,” River soothed, placing her hands on his face, “I’m right here.  You don’t have to worry.  Let it happen.  I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.”

“Promise?” he asked shakily.

“Promise,” she breathed against his lips.  Her mind reached out to his as they kissed, letting him feel how sincerely and fervently she loved every one of him; how little his many changes really changed him in her eyes.  The Doctor whimpered and pulled her roughly, desperately against him with trembling hands.  He clung to her for only a few moments before remembering himself, quickly breaking away from her and scrambling back, much as he could in their little canvas tent.

“River, you’d better get away,” he gasped, “I don’t know how it’s going to…”

As she watched, the golden light overtook his features entirely, the air ringing with energy and the taste of time.  She didn’t move away.  It seemed… calm, the energy concentrated inward rather than pouring out.  She hoped that was because she’d succeeded in reassuring him and he’d stopped resisting.  And then the light resolved, fading away from a new face.

“Oh my god,” River breathed, a little laugh of surprise bubbling up in her throat.

“What?” the Doctor gasped nervously.  “Is it bad?”  

She froze at the sound of her own voice.

“Oh.”

“Oh, indeed,” River giggled, smiling warmly as she crawled in closer again.

“River, is— is this alright?” she squeaked, looking down at the new body in her suddenly oversized kit.  “I mean, I know _you_ , er— but I didn’t think _I’d_ —”

River put a stop to the Doctor’s nervous rambling by resuming their kiss, unperturbed by the minor interruption.  The Doctor sighed, the tension melting out of her frame, and pulled River close again in smaller, but equally strong and loving arms.

All said, River thought that had gone quite well.

___

She unzipped the tent and got to her feet, dusting the dirt and pine needles from her knees.  The Doctor stood down by the lakeside, cutting a striking silhouette against the pale light of dawn reflecting on the water.  Sweet music rang over the still lake, the quivering strings echoing back in a haunting chorus.  She was playing _Summer_ this time— still a bit moody, but well, it  _was_ the Doctor.

River didn’t want to interrupt, but the Doctor must have heard her coming, as she stopped playing and turned, a brilliant smile on her face.

“Now this brings back memories,” River said, returning the Doctor’s fond smile.

“Found 'er in the TARDIS, and… I just sort of felt like picking it up again, I guess,” she said, setting the violin and bow down on the flat stone near the lake shore.  

“I wonder why that is,” River mused, smiling knowingly as she moved into the Doctor’s embrace.

There was still a chill in the air and a cool breeze sweeping in over the water, but her lips were warm, her kiss tender and breathtaking as ever.

“I suppose we should be getting back to the girls soon,” the Doctor whispered when they parted, tucking her face into River’s shoulder.

“Well, we can go back the minute we left, so there’s no rush if you want more time to get settled.  But I miss them too.”

“Mmm,” the Doctor hummed into River’s neck, making her shiver.  “It is lovely having you all to myself.  But the good bit about that is, now I get you to myself every night.”

“Oh, we’re going to keep up the sleeping, are we?” River teased.  “With all the universe our oyster, all of time and space available?  I thought we only slept on holiday.”

The Doctor scoffed.  “That was when we could shag in cupboards at parties any time we liked.  Got to work round the baby’s schedule while she’s sleepin’ every night.”

“We _were_ naughty, weren’t we?” River sighed fondly.

“We still have our moments.”

“Oh, you don’t need to remind me.  But you’re welcome to anyway.”

“Well, maybe I will,” the Doctor murmured, her lips curling into a wicked smile as she walked River back toward the tent.

“After all, there’s some favours I can finally return,” River purred.

The Doctor snorted incredulously.  “I don’t think you’ve anything to—”

_“Repeatedly.”_

“Oh.”  Bless her, she still turned pink.  “N-not that anyone’s countin’...”

“You did, you smug idiot.  And now _I’m_ going for your record.”

“Well, I… guess we could stay a bit longer,” the Doctor squeaked, clearing her throat and going more tomato than pink.

 

___

 

“We’ve got to be smart about this,” the Doctor said, pacing around the holographic image of the 400-mile long ship projected in the control room.  “I’m _not_ putting you in any unnecessary danger,” she said, meeting River’s gaze, “nor anyone we ask for help.  We’ve got to be agile in there.  Poppin’ in and out, not getting pulled down by the time distortions.”

“Vortex manipulator,” River said.  “Much less bulky than a TARDIS— no offence, dear,” she added, laying a hand on the console.  “Won’t be bogged down travelling near the event horizon.”

“Yes!  Brilliant.  How many of those have we got?”

“One,” River said flatly, “mine.   _You_ said they’re a rubbish way to time travel.”

“Well— actually, yes, I can’t believe I haven’t gotten you something better by now, honestly, I’ve really got to do that, but— at the moment, brilliant!”

River rolled her eyes.

“And you’ve got us,” Bill said.  “We can get in and out easy.”

“Yes! Got…” the Doctor scribbled on the white-board, speaking slowly as she wrote, “lovely wife’s… rubbish bracelet… and… cheatin’ magic puddle girls.”

“Oi, it’s not cheating just cause you’re jealous!”

The board actually read “River—Vortex manipulator” and “Bill + Heather” followed by some zoomy action lines.

“What about me?” Athena asked.

“You will be looking after your sister and staying far, far away from any and all evil cyborgs,” the Doctor said firmly.

“Dad, I’m an adult.  I’m a Time Lady, this is the sort of stuff I’m meant to be doing!  I can help!”

“Just because your mother and I are terrible examples doesn’t mean Time Lords are meant to be muckin’ about with this sort of thing.  If you want to do what you’re _meant_ to be doing, you might start with studying theoretical temporospatial physics at the Academy.  But I'm telling you right now, it’s rubbish.”

“Next time, sweetie,” River promised, looking sympathetically to her daughter.  “This is really dangerous, even by our usual standards.  Your dad already died in there once.  And she just got you back; go easy on her poor hearts.”

Athena sighed.  “And you really need a babysitter.”

“Well, that too.”

Milly was bouncing on Heather’s knee at the moment, staring up at her with wide, fascinated eyes.  That was a recent feat, as Heather, who seemed quite a lot less human in temperament than Bill despite them evidently undergoing the same transformation, had been rather... skittish, when first introduced to Milly.  River hesitated to say she had been scared of a baby, but only because she was pretty sure Heather could destroy them all if the mood struck.  Fortunately, she had warmed to most of them quickly with Bill's encouragement, and eventually, even to Milly.

Bill, on the other hand, had evidently met the older Milly as well, and was fairly mortified to have flirted with her now that she was toddling round the TARDIS with a sippy cup.  The Doctor expressed her sympathies.

“We’ve really only got to get the people out,” the Doctor mused as River emerged from her thoughts, “and then we can tell the nearest solar system there’s a great big ship full of Cybermen out there, and I’m sure they’ll be keen to get rid of 'em.  But there’s still an awful lot of people.”

“Where’re we gonna put them all?” Bill asked.

“Good question.  Honey, are you still in touch with Galactic Heritage?”

“I could be.  Mondas isn’t formally under their protection, but Earth is.  They might be willing to evacuate them, if we can get the people off the ship to start with.”

“So we isolate the levels showing human lifesigns and start pulling 'em out.  The quicker the better, cause if word travels to the lower levels they’ll have plenty of time to launch a counter-attack.”

“What about the level you were on before?” Athena asked.

“Nardole’s not there anymore, he moved up with the villagers.  Should be nothing left alive there.”

“Don’t you think you maybe ought to… check?  Just to be sure?”

The Doctor hesitated, opening and closing her mouth.  “Yeah…  I _was_ thinking that, for some reason.  But it doesn’t make any sense.  We’ll be able to tell from the TARDIS readings if there’s anyone still alive.”

“Still, you might miss something that way.”

River regarded Athena curiously, exchanging a glance with the Doctor.

“Something you’d like to tell us, love?”

“Um, can’t.  Spoilers.  I just think you should go.”

“Bloody hell,” the Doctor sputtered, “now _you’ve_ got those?  I thought we were finished!”

“Almost,” Athena said with a little smile.  “I think this is one of the last.”

“Well, alright,” the Doctor sighed, “River, I’m with you, and we’ll make a quick stop on 507.  Bill and Heather, you ought to take different levels so we can move as many people as possible off at once.  Any idea how many you can take in one go?  I’m assuming an entire village joinin' hands in a big circle’s a bit much?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” said Heather.

___

The success of the mission was lost on the Doctor.  

They laid Missy out in the rooms on the TARDIS that had so briefly been hers.

“I know she betrayed me in the end,” the Doctor whispered, leaning against River’s shoulder, “but anyone’d be confused by their own self showing up, telling ’em what to do.  And she was changing.  She was learning to be different.  That’s a, a vulnerable spot to be in.”

“I know.  It is,” River said softly, kissing the Doctor’s hair and rubbing her hand along her arm.

“What would I have done with her, anyway?  If she was going to be bad, I couldn’t just let her go.  And I couldn’t stay on Earth forever, guarding the damn vault.  It was never going to work.”

“You tried, sweetie,” River soothed.  “You did everything you could.”

“She really wanted to meet you.  She was even helping me figure out how to get you back.  I think you’d’ve loved her.  On a good day, at least.”

Bill and Nardole shuffled into the room, back from the last transport trip to the Galactic Heritage warships.

“Is she…?” Bill trailed off.

River met her eyes and nodded.

“Wait, are you sure?”

Well, that wasn’t quite the response she was anticipating.

“I’m sure, Bill,” the Doctor said.  “Time Lords go right to the next body.  We don’t do this bit unless we’re properly dead.”

“You did,” she said.

River, the Doctor and Nardole turned to look at her.

“Well... yeah, I… I guess I must’ve done.  You were there?”

“Who d’you think brought you back to the TARDIS?”

“Oh.  Dunno.  Sometimes she does things on her own.  Saved me again, did you?”

“Nah,” Bill scoffed, “just brought you home.”

“Thanks,” the Doctor said hoarsely.

“I knew you couldn’t really be dead.  Just wasn’t possible.”

The Doctor let out a little puff of laughter.  “Seems like you know everything, Bill.”

“Well, like you told me.  Where there’s tears, there’s hope.”

The Doctor took a shuddering breath, smiling as she wiped her wet eyes with the heel of her palm.

“Maybe I do occasionally say something wise, eh?” she mumbled, laying her hand over Missy’s.

 

___

 

The little blue house found a comfortable spot on Luna, within walking distance of the university.  The Doctor planted vegetables and flowers in the front garden, actually made friends with all the neighbours, and sort of accidentally started a nursery school.  It all began when one of Milly’s little friends from down the way came round for afternoon tea while River and Athena were out, and subsequently went home to her mum and dad with tales of the mad lady, the scary lady, the strange bald man, and the brilliant experiments they’d done.  (Said experiments had resulted in a tiny bit of exploding, but also in their child of five years somehow mastering basic algebraic equations.) Word spread from there.

The Doctor immediately swore off teaching university students ever again, because the little ones were so much cleverer before their brains had been spoilt by lesser educators.  The children were, somewhat inexplicably, delighted with Missy’s threats to have them for a snack if they irritated her.  Her new face was very good with death glares, but it didn’t seem much use.  River thought she quite enjoyed being irritated by them.  And Nardole, for all his protestations that he’d rather be trafficking alien organs, had obviously found his calling.

River, possessing somewhat less patience for small, sticky creatures that weren’t her own, resumed her teaching position at the university, and within a matter of months was made head of the Archaeology department. This led to her being able to choose more exciting destinations for their field work, and, due to the frequency of such ‘excitement,’ to her entire department receiving combat training.

Athena occasionally accompanied her parents on River’s digs, but spent much of her time zipping round space with Bill and Heather.  She had a century of travel to catch up on, she said, since even baby Milly had likely seen more of the universe than her.  But they nearly always made it home for dinner.

And if sometimes a passerby thought there was suddenly an empty bit of dirt where the little blue house normally stood, well, it was always there again when they took a second look.

 

___

 

On their anniversary that year, the Doctor took River to the Towers for dinner via her Vortex manipulator, during the last night of sunrise.

“I know we’ve got plenty of memories here,” she said, pulling River close as they stood on the balcony and watched the pale violet dawn glow around the silhouettes of the towers.  “Good ones.  But before, the good bits always hurt.”

River squeezed the Doctor’s hand, taking a shaky breath.

“So I wanted to make a new one.  One that’s just happy.  Just… right.  Because that’s how I always feel with you.”

Her deep hazel eyes met River’s, shining with unshed tears, her cheeks slightly flushed and mouth curled into a radiant smile.

“Me too,” River whispered, leaning closer, her eyes on those soft, smiling lips.

In the warmth of the Doctor’s kiss, she felt it.  All the love and hurt they’d shared here, all the happiness and the dread.  And now, their future: open, unwritten.  Hope unfettered by pain.

She also felt the Doctor fumbling for something in her pocket.

When they reluctantly parted, her smile was nervous.  River looked down to see a ring clutched in her fingers, just barely shining in the soft light.  It looked very much like the one the Doctor had been wearing as a wedding band since she was the Scot, which she’d recently had resized, making it quite possibly the first thing she’d continued to wear between regenerations.

“I know you were never one for wedding rings, but—”

“I love it,” River said, lip quivering as she held out her hand.

“Oh, good,” the Doctor sighed, grinning in relief as she slid it onto her finger.  She lifted River’s hand and kissed it, and River laughed wetly, wiping her eyes.

“But what I was gonna say is, this one’s special.  Hold on to me, and think of somewhere you want to go.  Anywhere, anywhen in the universe you’d like to be.”

There were a few moments of silence.

“Well?” the Doctor asked expectantly.

“I— I’m trying!” River sputtered, letting out a little breathless laugh.

“What, you’re telling me you can’t think of anywhere?”

“Um.  Not at the moment,” she mumbled, flushing.

A huge grin spread across the Doctor’s face.

“River, that is the cheesiest thing I have ever heard.”

“Oh, shut up,” she grumbled.

“No, honestly, I thought I was ba—” she cut the Doctor off with a kiss.

 

As the wind picked up, the towers began to sing.

  
 


	2. Illustrations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!! I hope you didn't think there was more (written) material... but I also hope this will be worth your while :)

**Author's Note:**

> I can't thank all of you enough for reading this story and sharing your wonderful, encouraging comments. Words really can't express how much it means to me. I love you all so very much.
> 
> It's extremely hard to call it the end after writing this pretty much consumed my life for half a year, but I think it is properly the end now. Time to let this one rest... unless series 11 forces me to write a sequel :)
> 
> Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for all your support!! You're the best readers a girl could ask for.


End file.
